Does the NRA’s Ad Featuring Obama’s Children Go Too Far?

On Wednesday President Obama announced a series of proposals to address gun violence. The day before, the National Rifle Association, which opposes the president's ideas, released a Web ad that stoked controversy, particularly because the ad focuses on Obama's daughters.

In it, the NRA calls Obama an "elitist hypocrite" because his children, who by law receive protection from the Secret Service, go to school with armed guards, even though the president disagreed with the NRA's proposal to put armed guards in every school in the country.

The ad was attacked by many as irresponsibly injecting the president's children into a volatile and emotional public debate about gun violence. Press Secretary Jay Carney called the ad "repugnant and cowardly." The Republican governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, had this to say: "To talk about the president's children or any public officers children who have, not by their own choice, but by requirement, to have protection, to use that somehow to try to make a political point I think is reprehensible."

The NRA stood by the ad. Its CEO, Wayne LaPierre, said, “It wasn’t about the president’s daughters. What it is about is how to keep children safe.”